Free Your Heart
by Sunshinecackle
Summary: Mary was a casualty, Robert was just most unfortunate.


**Title:** Free Your Heart  
**Author:** Donnie  
**Fandom:** Dream Daddy: A Dad Dating Simulator  
**Setting:** Jim and Kim's  
**Pairing:** Robert Small/Joseph Christiansen, Joseph Christiansen/Mary Christiansen  
**Characters:** Robert Small, Mary Christiansen, Joseph Christiansen  
**Genre:** Angst/Romance  
**Rating:** T  
**Chapters:** 1/1  
**Word Count:** 807  
**Type of Work:** One-Shot  
**Status:** Complete  
**Warnings:** Gay, Slash, Het, Straight, Pre Cult-Ending, Cultist!Joseph, Mary and Robert are good friends, Bugs  
**Disclaimer:** I don't own anything.  
**Summary:** Mary was a casualty, Robert was just most unfortunate.

**AN:** So… I've had a rough few days. But I thought maybe writing some angst would be good, and I wanted to enter a contest for flash fiction on Deviantart. This is my entry, and I'm hoping that it at least gets read a little. xD At any rate, I'm writing through some pain and such so here we go!

Also, I didn't have anyone read over it after I edited it, so if things sound wonky, I apologize. I usually have someone double check it after I edit, so we'll see.

**Free Your Heart******

**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**

"Hey there, sailor." Mary greeted, swaying a little more than necessary as she carefully placed her hands on the table to attempt to sit in the booth. Robert gave her a grim frown and raised his whiskey glass at her, a grunt her only 'hello'. "What's his highness done, this time?"

Pausing for a second, Robert's lips parted as if he wanted to say something, but he stopped himself. Taking a long pull from his glass, he practically drained it despite wanting to save this one a little, savor it. Biting the inside of his cheek, he finally sighed, resting both elbows on the table and clapping his hands together, pointing at his best friend and fellow captive.

"...What hasn't he done?"

"I hear you." Raising her own glass, Mary shook her head, "But it looks like you're drowning your sorrows."

"Got a lot of 'em to drown." His voice dropped to a tone she couldn't hear very well, and the way he avoided eye contact with everything with eyes in the room told her volumes of how her friend felt.

"Most of them related to _him_?" She questioned, finally, taking a dainty sip from her wine glass before setting it down, leaning back in the booth. With one hand holding her elbow, the other held her chin as she sighed softly. "You can talk about it, if you want"

"No, I can't." Paranoid dark eyes cast around the room like he was worried Joseph would crawl out of the woodwork, a thousand roaches pouring from the walls to form his perfect, beautiful, horribly addictive body. Shaking the thought from his head, he sighed loudly enough to call attention to them briefly, "He's just… Being himself. Can't make up his mind, wants everyone to suffer. It's fucking bullshit."

"_He's_ fucking bullshit." Mary interjected, smiling sympathetically as she reached out to rub his knuckles with her thumb. "And he shouldn't be doing this to us."

"But he _is_." And Robert knew why he had chosen them, too. Mary was miserable, using alcohol to cope, and Robert was hardly any better, carrying so many innumerable hardships that he was probably enough to feed Joseph's God by himself, and then some. "And it's… Fucking horrible."

"Him. That's him in a nutshell." Mary pointed at him while lifting her glass, pinky up as she took a larger gulp of the crimson liquid. It seemed he wasn't the only one that couldn't savor his drink tonight.

"Maybe…" It always hurt that Robert would curse and defend Joseph in the same breath. Cursing himself quietly, he scrubbed his face with his hands, considering washing his face in the bathroom; He only paused when her hand wrapped around his and tugged it from his face.

"Neither of us have freedom." The wistful way she said the last word told him how badly she wished to have it back. "I used to think you were lucky. You didn't have to worry about being caged in and forced to play his stupid games. Then I realized… You _are_ one of his stupid games. You're as trapped in him as I am"

"_I_ used to think I could leave whenever I wanted." Robert admitted, "That I didn't need him. I don't know if he pulled anything or not, but… I don't think I could stand to just leave." For the first time in his life, he was addicted to a person, a very, very bad person that he couldn't get enough of. Even being with Mary alone was hard on him sometimes, because he just expected Joseph to swing around the booth and join them with a grand smile and his broad gestures. Embarrassingly enough, he didn't quite know if he was tense because he wanted it or because he feared it.

"Sounds like he pulled your heartstrings, bucko." Mary chuckled, "He does that… It's like he worms his way in despite everything, like apple maggots. Once he's done with the sweetness, with pulling you in, you're no longer a toy and you become useful to him. The problem is that he just remains an infestation in your skin. Even I can't get rid of him."

Robert considered her words for a minute, waving down the bartender to get another drink. When it was brought and he sipped at it again, trying to make it last this time, he nodded.

"He's a maggot, alright. But I don't think he's the fly." _We are_ went unsaid.

"Come into my parlor," Mary laughed mirthlessly, her eyes tired and dull, "He really is."

The web they were tangled in wasn't good for anyone, _Joseph_ wasn't good for anyone. But it wasn't like they were capable of escaping him. Once he was in, he never truly left.

**~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~**

**AN:** Woo, here we go! I wanted to write this regardless, and I thought it would be a good one for this flash fiction contest. I hope you guys enjoyed!


End file.
